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Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Ways to Resolve Drought Issues

Water can be termed as an essential basic element for the survival of all living beings. As plants, animals and humans are the one who can’t live without water. In fact non living things also need water; we wash and clean non living things using water. The importance of water itself suggests that it is necessary to save water not only during the droughts, but one take measures to not to waste water always. Droughts are the dry conditions (shortage of water) that sometimes takes place in a particular region due to summer season and lack of rain fall. Climatic conditions are varying in almost every region and so is the presence of water resources. During droughts there is no water in wells, tube wells, borings, rivers and lakes starts to dry. For such situation we need to take some measures against wastage of water and should promote proper utilization of water, so that water can be saved for future use. So, here is a compiled list of top 10 ways to resolve water drought issues, which can help a person in saving water during droughts.

10). Container Gardening

Planting the plants in a Container can save water to a large extent, as the water runoff problem is solved in this case. The amount of water supplied to the soil is used fully, avoiding wastage of water. There are more measures one need to take care of while doing container gardening such as for container gardening plastic, glazed or enameled pots must be used instead of wooden or terracotta containers; as wooden and terracotta containers absorb moisture. For further reducing the amount of water usage, one can place small containers having plants in larger containers, so that the inner container is cooler and hence chances of evaporation reduce. Also the size of container should be taken according to the requirement, as a large container contains more soil and thus require more water.

9). Avoid Evaporation of Water

The water we supply to our plants evaporates due to high temperature of air in day time. So, we should water plants in early morning or evening timings(when the air temperature is low) so that water supplied to the plants do not evaporate.

8). Promoting the use of Rain Barrel

During drought also some rain may possibly fall, during such time saving and using the rain water is a very good option. Rain Barrels are the containers which can be connected to the groove in home. The water collected in such container can be used to water shrubs, trees, plants. Also French Drains can be used to provide direction to the runoff water to the areas where it can be used efficiently.

7). Xeriscaping

It is a process of conserving water through ingenious landscaping, it is the alternative introduced to save water in all the projects like agriculture, residential and commercial projects. The process refers to gardening and landscaping in such methods that reduce the need of addendum water for irrigation. This process is basically promoted in places which that do not have appropriate access to water. It is also treated as one of the objective to a variety of gardening process. Some of the benefits of Xeriscaping are it saves water, require less maintenance, improves the value of property, decreases pollution rate, reduces requirement of fertilizers and pesticides.

6). Mulching the Soil

Mulch is a substance that is usually proliferated to about 3 to 6 inches deep on the bare soil amid plants. It is one of the best ways to save water in the soil and is also very effectual way in maintaining the temperatures and nourishing the soil. Various mulching materials are corn cobs, bark chips, straw, various rocks, pea gravel, leaves, wood ash, and sawdust. There are two types of mulch inorganic and organic. Organic mulch with time breaks down and provides nutrients to the soil, and hence makes soil more affluent. Since it decomposes with time, therefore needs to be replaced in proper timings. Mulching also prevents evaporation of water; it reduces the quantitative requirement of water and also thwarts the intensification of weeds. Contact of mulch with the plant’s stalk and trunk of trees should be avoided.

5). Water Saving Practices

The use of water can be controlled by taking proper watering measures such as plants should be watered depending upon the temperature of the air, as in day time most of the water is evaporated, watering should be done slowly and deeply to avoid wastage of water, use of soaker hoses should be promoted and use of fertilizers should be avoided during droughts, as due to limited availability of moisture fertilizer salts can cause injury to roots.

4). Drip Irrigation

Sometimes drip irrigation is also referred as micro irrigation, localized irrigation or trickle irrigation. It is a method that saves fertilizers and water, in this method the water dribbles slowly to the plant’s roots, through tubes, valves, emitters and pipes. In this the designing of the process can be varied according to the requirements. The various advantages of this irrigation process is it is easy to install, efficient irrigation process, pest problems and growth of weeds can be controlled up to a large extent, and is economic in nature and is versatile.

3). Reuse of Water

Reusing and recycling the water is one of the best ways of saving water during drought times. It reduces the heaviness of supplying water on various water sources. Also choosing the appropriate source of water is an important factor for saving water, for this one should consider the energy requirement, risk and usage. We should turn off the spigot when we are not using it, should check the pipelines and taps for leakages and should repair them whenever needed. Should not waste water whenever there is possibility of using it again, for example after washing vegetables and fruits we can use water for watering plants. We should wash the dishes in plugged sink, instead of running water. Only a bucket of water is sufficient of washing the cars and vehicles. Installation of showerheads and water efficient taps should be promoted.

2). Intensive Planting

Intensive planting refers to proper plantation of plants considering space, in such methods the plants are placed in triangular patterns. While placing the plants one should consider that the leaves should hardly touch each other and the basic necessity of sunlight, soil and carbon dioxide, by this the growth of plants improves, less water is required and also controls weeds. In this process the best type of spacing is that there is equal gap in all directions between the plants of same type and also same type of plants should be planted on same bed, to prevent the overcapacity by various ranges. Whenever there is need of mixing some of plants then one should consider that they have same growing season and habit of growing, plants having unlike characteristics should not be mixed in any case.

1). Avoid Runoff from Watering

The water that flows due to infiltrated soil, and surplus water due to rains, meltware etc is the Surface Runoff water. Due to runoff the water is wasted, along with water the soil and water can also pick other materials like pesticides, fertilizers and contaminate at a point causing pollution. For avoiding the runoff of water one should first inspect the moisture in soil, and then only water the plants if needed, because extra water is wasted. Also one should avoid frequent watering process.